Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Islington to Oxford Circus

Yesterday morning (Wednesday) we met Cath and Eddie at the Empress and caught the 277 bus, right outside their flat, to the Northern end of Upper Street, Islington, a favourite shopping haunt for Cath (& Maxie & Rod). Cath gave us a guided tour as we walked the full length of Upper Street towards the Angel tube station.

We were excited to see the famous Ottolenghi at last. The window display, including the famous meringue mountains, looked incredibly inviting. Unfortunately Ottolenghi was too crowded to take Eddie in the pram for our morning coffee.

We headed up the Camden Passage with all its antique stalls....

...to Cath's favourite Annie's which I now realise has been very inspirational in developing all those higher end Topshop beaded pieces.

I thought Antonio Carluccio was almost Australian but we find Carluccio's right here on Upper Street; pram friendly too.

We left Cath for her lunch date with Annie & Elvis while we caught the tube to Oxford Circus and the high street shopping experience around Oxford Street. We caught our breath at our first sighting of the beautiful old Liberty department store in Regent Street.

Oh to be able to choose a couturier designed scarf at Liberty......

....or perhaps a Persian rug? Despite appearances there were lots of affordable things here. We particularly liked the beautiful menswear especially the shoe and scarf collection.

Back on Oxford Street we walked past John Lewis and the amazing Selfridges(too tasteful to even have a Selfridges sign outside)...............

.....up as far as Primark. I did some shopping at Primarkwhich was an interesting experience: bought 3 long sleeve knit tops and a pair of tights for 8GBP (about $13 AUS). It was like shopping in a huge messy barn, clothes falling all over the floor, queues a mile long for the fitting rooms. I got served quicker than I would at David Jones though. It's all very well organised when it comes to paying your money. Lots of foreign accents shopping in Primark.

Nothing in this Primark window cost over 4GBP.

Rob did the typical English thing and bought a bunch of colour co-ordinated undies and socks at Marks & Spencers and I took these shots in Topshop at Oxford Circus for Cath. The staff T-shirts: OMGTopshop are a new thing apparently!

Rob and I bought the makings of dinner at the Selfridges food hall. Later I walked through some of the ground floor displays of this amazing department store, and was intrigued by the Middle Eastern ladies in full face veils and black silk burqas (+ attendants) selecting their Coco Chanel perfumes with great ceremony.

We caught a crowded peak hour tube ride from Oxford Circus to Bethnal Green station and walked back to the flat at Empress Court for dinner with Davey, Cath and Eddie.

This up close squirrel sighting in Approach Road is a very every day thing for Londoners, but still a novelty for us.

We were lucky enough to have some cuddles with Eddie at his half sleepy, half wakey, half hungry time of the day.......

..and I got to to see him enjoy his bathtime while Rob and Davey picked out a beautiful bottle of McLaren Vale Shiraz from Bottle Apostle across the the road.

....and then he went to sleep right on schedule at the regular 7.30-7.45pm timeslot. What an amazing baby!

1 comment:

I think we are all enjoying reliving 'our' travel through London, Judy. Pity you couldn't get into Ottolenghi. Better luck next time? We all love Eddie in the bath. That is a lovely photo. But I have to admit I am also very impressed by the squirrel photo! I only ever got back views as they took off laughing at my slowness. How did you do it? You are sure packing a lot into your days.